Why Reform is growing

Reform is not the disease. It is the symptom

Introduction to this series

Reform’s rise reflects a deeper crisis in Britain. When millions face economic insecurity, political alienation and collapsing trust in institutions, a serious analysis of people’s reaction to their world falling apart all around them is required.

In this three-part series, I explore why Reform is growing, why simply condemning it will fail, and why a politics of care and an economics of hope offer a credible alternative.

---

Understanding Reform

There is a great deal of commentary right now on the rise of Reform, but much of it misses the point. Too many people still want to believe that Reform support is simply the product of ignorance, prejudice or irrationality. That interpretation is not only inadequate, but it is also politically dangerous because it prevents serious engagement with what is actually happening in the UK.

The reality is that Reform is feeding off a profound collapse in trust, security and political legitimacy in Britain. Unless that fact is understood, Reform will continue to grow.

The first issue to note is that many Reform supporters are angry, and often for understandable reasons. They know from lived experience that:

• Real wages have stagnated for years.

• Public services are deteriorating.

• Housing is increasingly unaffordable.

• Secure employment has weakened.

• Younger generations, in particular, often believe they will never enjoy the stability their parents once took for granted.

That insecurity matters. People who feel they are losing control over their lives will inevitably look for explanations as to why that is happening, and, just as importantly, for someone to blame.

Second, many people believe the mainstream political parties have abandoned them. There is now a widespread perception that Labour and the Conservatives are both managed by a professional political class detached from ordinary experience and largely uninterested in the realities of everyday life outside Westminster and metropolitan centres.

That feeling is especially strong in places hollowed out by deindustrialisation, cuts to local services, declining community infrastructure and economic neglect. In those places, Reform is often heard not because it offers coherent answers, but because it at least appears to recognise the anger people feel.

Third, there has been a broader collapse in trust in institutions:

• The financial crisis damaged confidence in economics and banking.

• Brexit destroyed trust in political competence.

• Covid exposed administrative weaknesses.

• Repeated scandals have undermined faith in Parliament itself.

Increasingly, many people no longer believe that those in authority are either honest or capable. That matters because once institutional legitimacy weakens, anti-establishment politics becomes much more attractive.

Fourth, immigration then becomes a lightning rod for wider frustrations. For many Reform supporters, migration is not only about migration itself. It has become a proxy for anxiety about insecurity, identity, housing shortages, pressure on services, declining social cohesion and a broader sense that control has been lost.

That does not mean every Reform voter is motivated primarily by racism. Some undoubtedly are, but many others are expressing a wider fear about instability and exclusion. If those concerns are simply dismissed, resentment deepens.

Fifth, Reform also benefits because it offers emotionally simple explanations. Mainstream politics increasingly communicates in technocratic language about frameworks, targets and fiscal rules. Reform instead offers direct emotional narratives. It blames migrants, elites, “woke politics”, net zero, bureaucrats and Westminster. These might be emotionally simple, but these explanations are often economically incoherent and socially divisive. They are, however, emotionally intelligent, and politics is for many emotional before it is rational.

In that context, there is also a cultural dimension to Reform’s appeal that many progressives underestimate. Reform tells its supporters that they are the “real” country, that their anger is justified, and that their values and identity matter. In an era when many people feel socially invisible or culturally displaced, that message carries considerable power.

Social media amplifies all of this. Algorithms reward outrage, conflict and grievance. Reform is highly effective at operating within that environment because its politics is emotionally charged, confrontational and highly personalised. Traditional parties often still behave as if politics is conducted through policy papers and carefully managed press releases. Increasingly, it is not. The political apparatchiks within the mainstream parties have yet to notice.

Sixth, it is also vital to understand that Reform did not create the conditions from which it benefits. Austerity, privatisation, financialisation, regional inequality, declining public services and economic insecurity long predate Reform. Reform is exploiting the failures produced by the existing neoliberal political and economic model.

That is why simply attacking Reform supporters does not work. If people feel economically insecure, culturally anxious and politically voiceless, condemnation from opponents often reinforces the belief that elites neither understand nor respect them.

In the second part of this series, I look at how Reform can be challenged, and why doing so requires more than simply attacking the party or its supporters.